Escape
by Alexandra3
Summary: Written from a request on Trillian4210's forums. Finding the Exile and escaping Goto's yacht is one thing. Trying to do that without being injured is something else.


**This story is dedicated to Trillian4210, because without her, this would be another few weeks in coming. More notes at the bottom.

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Eiron had never been one to sit back and let others do what needed to be done. She had gone to the Mandalorian Wars without much urging, because someone had to step up and save the Republic. She had decided to try and find the hiding Jedi Masters and destroy the newest Sith threat, once again because someone had to do it. She was a woman of action.

Except for now. She had been captured and now waited on Goto's yacht for someone to save her. The blaring alarms told her that her friends were coming for her. She only wished there was something she could do.

"Fracking Goto," she muttered, annoyed with herself for getting caught in the first place. If she was honest with herself, there wouldn't be much she could do in her current condition. Her body still ached from the electrical current that had run through her. It was particularly painful at the small of her back where the most concentrated jolt had hit her. She could heal herself with the Force, but she had a feeling that she would need her powers later and she was loathe to waste them now.

Sighing deeply, the Exile began to pace along the room. She knew she should conserve her energy, but she was too restless to sit in one place. She stopped suddenly and turned, her eyes fixated on the door to her prison. She hurried over and listened intently, her Force senses outstretched. She could barely make out Atton and Mira on the other side, arguing about something as they tried to force the door open. Her bright smile quickly dissolved into a frown. She could feel their weariness and pain–they were injured. Thankful that she had not exhausted her powers yet, she waited tensely for the door to open.

When the doors finally opened a minute later, Eiron breathed in disbelief. Atton stood before her, a cocky grin on his face, with his hands rested casually on his blasters. "Hey babe. Ready to go?"

Eiron's wide eyes darted between him and Mira, half-hidden behind his lanky form. "But–how did you get here? I mean, aren't you injured? It couldn't have been easy!"

Atton's smile slipped only a fraction. "I've got to admit, I was hoping for a little more than "why the hell are you here?" A kiss would be nice. I'd even settle for a hug. But fine, straight to business it is." His smile fell altogether as he studied her unamused face. "Look, you should check out Mira before we move on."

"Shut up Atton," Mira muttered from behind him.

The scoundrel rolled his eyes and stepped aside so Eiron could see the bounty hunter. She was favoring her left leg as her right thigh was a mess of blood. Her arm also sported a few shiny blaster burns, from glancing shots when she used the launcher on her wrist. Mira tried to smile, but it was forced and flat. "Droids were a little aggressive," she said.

Eiron shook her head and guided Mira into the room, helping her to sit on the floor. Eiron gathered the Force around her, channeling it into Mira's battered body. She focused on repairing the damage that the blasters had done.

Mira sighed as the pain receded. "Handy trick you've got there."

Eiron glanced up and smiled. "It can be. Thanks for coming Mira."

Mira waved a hand in dismissal. "We're not out of this yet. You can thank me later." She watched with interest as the bleeding stopped and her skin knit back together. She was still a little sore, but her wounds were healed, for the most part. Mira closed her eyes for a moment before she smiled at the Exile. "Thanks. You should check on Atton now."

Eiron turned to see Atton was leaning casually against the wall. His eyes narrowed. "I'm fine. Now let's get off this ship before the entire Exchange comes knocking." Eiron didn't move, instead focusing on Atton. When she concentrated, she could see the slight tremble in his hands as they moved and how his stance was stiff. She noticed how his skin was paler than normal and sweat was beading on his brow.

Atton frowned and stood straighter when Eiron rose and moved towards him. "Seriously, I'm fine. Can we please get out of here?" He tried to move out of the way of the Exile, but she pursued him. He couldn't escape her and she soon had managed to push his jacket to the side, exposing the large blood stain on his side.

"Atton!" Eiron cried, alarmed at how large the stain was. She quickly forced him to sit down and tore his jacket off. Despite his weak protests, she pulled his two shirts out of his pants and shoved them upwards to expose the still bleeding wound. She stared at it in dismay for a moment, shocked that he had been able to conceal something so obviously painful from her.

Atton tried to push her away and pull his shirts back down, but she stopped him. He sighed in annoyance and leaned his head back against the wall. "You know babe, even though having you rip my clothes off is a favorite fantasy of mine, now really isn't the best time. And not while Mira's watching either. I'm all game for when we get back to the ship though."

Eiron glared at him. "Shut up Atton. Why didn't you say anything?"

"Getting to you was a bit more important," he muttered.

Mira stood up across the room and tested out her newly healed leg. "The idiot wouldn't stop until we got to you. He went down a few times, but he just kept at it."

Atton growled. "Shut it Mira. Why don't you make yourself useful and go scout for us, huh?" Mira rolled her eyes, drew her blasters and headed out the door, though there was a small smirk on her face.

Eiron once again drew the Force to her and focused on healing Atton. The entire right side of his torso was ripped apart. It was amazing he had still been standing at all. She shook her head and laid her hands on the skin around the wound. "You should have been more careful." she said quietly.

"I was being careful," he said reproachfully. "The droids didn't seem to care though."

The Exile shook her head again, steadily sending healing waves into his body. She closed her eyes and gathered all of her remaining energy, using it to dull the pain and close the wound. Atton's sigh of relief reached her ears and she was thankful once again that she didn't waste her Force powers before.

After several more minutes, she opened her eyes and checked his side again. She had to rip off a piece of her robe and wipe away some of the blood, but the wound itself was mostly healed. All that remained was a pale scar, though the skin was too thin and could rip if he wasn't careful. Eiron sighed herself and looked up into Atton's smiling face.

"Thanks. You know, now that Mira isn't here and I'm already half-naked, we could–" He cut off when Eiron punched his shoulder. "Hey!" he yelled in protest, rubbing the now sore skin. "What was that for? And after you just healed me to!"

"Don't you dare scare me like that again, Atton Rand," Eiron threatened. It wasn't until she had started to heal him that she knew how deep the wound was. . .it was worse than he had let on. Of course, he hadn't said anything at all, so that wasn't saying much. She glowered at him and stood up, wiping her hands on her robes. "Now hurry up. We have to get to the bridge and then we need to get out of here. And you will stay behind me, got it?"

Atton climbed to his feet, pulling down his shirt and mumbling the whole time. "Yeah, I got it. This is the thanks I get? Not even a kiss? I'm only going to get punished instead of praised. Great." He snatched his jacket from the ground and shrugged it on. "Fine. Let's grab Mira and go."

Eiron stalked down the hallway towards Mira, not bothering to wait for Atton. She wanted off this stupid ship. She was tired, she was sore and she was more than a little annoyed with her companions. She wanted out.

When they got to the command console that led to the bridge, it became obvious that this wasn't going to be easy, by any means. Protecting the doors to the bridge were minefields. And protecting the minefields were a squad of large droids. Eiron cursed softly.

"What now oh fearless leader?" Atton asked. He wasn't too happy to see more of those droids. . .they had taken a literal piece out of him, after all.

Eiron thought for a moment, running scenarios through her mind. She turned to Mira, a thoughtful look on her face. "Mira, you could probably get by the mines without tripping them right?"

The red-head nodded. "Yeah, shouldn't be a problem. What about those droids though?"

Eiron waved her hand. "I'll worry about the droids. I'll draw them out and you loop around the side and sneak up to the bridge. Shut down the power distribution and then we'll get out of here. Sound good?"

Mira nodded and moved off to the side slowly, keeping to the wall so as not to attract the droids' attention. Eiron grabbed her lightsabers, ready to activate them. Atton peered over her shoulder into the room, mentally taking count of how many droids there were. "What exactly do you want me to do?"

Eiron glanced behind her briefly. "Just use your blasters and shoot them from afar. Stay behind me if you can."

"I'm not letting you take those things head on without help."

Eiron grit her teeth. "Atton, for once in your life, do what I ask you without complaint. Please?" Without waiting for a reply, she activated the two blades–one purple and one viridian–and stepped into the room. The droids came to life immediately and came towards them.

Atton let loose with his blasters, aiming for the critical points on the droids. Eiron's lightsabers flashed as she moved, cleaving through the droids that were starting to surround her. Occasionally, the sheer numbers became too much and a blaster bolt or flying arm would cut through her defenses. Still, she kept at it, deflecting as many shots as she could and trying to destroy as many droids as were in her reach.

She was starting to wonder how long she could keep this up when the remaining droids suddenly stopped and shut down. Eiron paused only briefly before she took the opportunity to destroy the defenseless machines. They fell to a pile around her feet, nothing more than a smoldering ruin of parts.

Eiron deactivated her lightsabers and leaned over, resting her hands on her knees. She was breathing hard and her robes were smoking in a few places from blaster bolts. Atton worriedly came to her side. "Eiron? Are you okay?"

She waved him off. "Fine, fine. Just have to catch my breath." She looked up when Mira nearly waltzed into the room, a bright smile on her face. "Everything taken care of?"

The bounty hunter nodded. "I think it's about time we get out now."

Eiron took a deep breath and stepped over the destroyed droids. They hurried back the way they had come, but not without running into every bounty hunter on Nar Shaddaa. They had to fight through a group of Duros, Twi'leks and Gand before they managed to get to the ship. And even that was a close call.

The three ran through the airlock the moment they had a chance. Atton closed the lock behind them and shouted that they were ready to go. The ship shifted beneath their feet as Bao-Dur piloted them away from Goto's yacht.

Atton leaned against the wall, grinning at their neat escape. Mira, with a smile at the Exile, turned and headed up to the cockpit to see if she could help in any way. Eiron, for her part, collapsed onto the ground once the ship was away, gasping for breath. Her fatigued body had been through too much.

"Eiron!" Atton cried out in alarm. He rushed to her side, but she held up a hand to ward him off.

"I'm fine," she wheezed. "Just a little out of breath. Go take care of the ship."

Atton snorted and leaned down to pull her up. "I don't think so babe, not yet. I'm taking you to the Med Bay first, you need to get looked at. Why didn't you just heal yourself anyway?"

Eiron rolled her eyes, shuffling down the corridor with the scoundrel's help. "Contrary to what you and everyone else may believe, Force powers do not come from some never-ending well. You need energy to do anything and I'm just a little drained at the moment."

Atton bit his lip, realizing why she was so tired. "You shouldn't have used all your powers on me, you know."

Eiron stopped and turned, meeting Atton's eyes. "Don't give me that. I'll decide when and where to use the Force. As it is, I happen to be a little fond of you–though I can't imagine why–and I would like to keep you around. If that means I need to use my powers to heal you, then so be it. Now let it go."

She started to shuffle away again, but the scoundrel caught her arm. "You're a little fond of me? Really? You know, I did get hurt trying to save you. I think that warrants at the very least a kiss, though the removal of some clothing would not be a bad thing."

Eiron studied him for a moment before she turned fully toward him. She reach out and pushed him so his back hit the corridor wall. She pressed her body to his, leaning up to bring her face to his. Atton almost groaned at the sensation and closed his eyes, waiting for what was to come.

Eiron grinned broadly and let her lips brush his ear as she whispered, "Consider this part of your punishment." Then she was gone, disappearing into the nearby Med Bay.

Atton waited a moment, hardly believing what had just _not_ happened. He cursed loudly and slammed his head against the wall. All he could do was groan, "Damn Jedi."

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This was in response to a request on Trillian's forums. The thought was that two people could not have gotten on Goto's yacht, past all the droids and to the Exile without being critically injured. For some reason, this story was very hard for me to write and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. But I made a deal that this story would be out by today and here it is, so enjoy! Thanks for reading and let me know what you think! Alexandra 


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